Food and Supplies Minister Sanjay Dasburma today informed the Odisha Assembly that the government has decided to provide 25 kg of cheap rice at the rate of Re 1 a kg to around 6.23 lakh poor and left out (PLO) families in 19 poverty stricken districts of the state from August.

Sanjay Dasburma

“The state government has decided that all PLO families will get 25 kg of cheap rice at the rate of Re 1 a kg every month from August, 2014 to March 2015.The beneficiary families will get the cheap rice under public distribution system (PDS),” said the Minister in a statement in the assembly.

Though these 6,23,528 families did not figure in the BPL list, the state government supplied subsidized rice to them following a Supreme Court order.

“An additional allocation of 1,93,333 metric tonne (MT) rice has been received from the government of India for additional BPL families (PLO families) at BPL rate with the stipulation that the allocation would cease to continue with immediate effect on implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the state,” the minister said.

The allocation would be lifted in eight equal monthly installments for distribution during August this year and March, 2015.

The state government needs around 15588.200 MT of rice a month and a total requirement of 1,24,705.6 MT for these eight months to meet this additional allocation.

“The total financial implication towards the additional subsidies for eight months will be Rs 67.71 crore and it would be met out from budgetary allocation towards subsidized rice scheme,” the minister added.

With a total of 1,02,993 PLO families, Mayurbhanj district would be the biggest beneficiary of the additional allocation, followed by Bolangir with 60,547 families.

The Central government had identified the families, who did not figured in the existing BPL list, under the PLO category in 19 poor districts.